An aerosol OT (AOT; sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate)/water system coupled with I3−/I− electrolyte enables the control of the concentration of the redox couples through the hydrogen-bonding association between the AOT and the carboxy group of the dye in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), as demonstrated by Taiho Park, Hyun Myung Jang, and co-workers on page 1344. This novel concept provides insight into the regeneration and recombination kinetics and allows for the development of highly efficient DSCs.

On page 1316 Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov and co-workers present a plasma-assisted process using butter as the natural precursor to enable the green synthesis of vertical graphene nanosheets (VGNS). The VGNS show a controllable degree of graphitization and edge planes and possess advantageous features such as large surface area, 3D and open network structure, and excellent electrical transport properties. VGNS employed as the binderfree supercapacitor electrodes exhibit high specific capacitance with excellent stability. Such performance can be further enhanced through the synergistic integration of VGNs and manganese oxide nanoparticles.

Article first published online: 29 MAY 2013 | DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201300166

Revealing the electronic structures of Pt-alloys explains why the addition of transition metal to Pt speeds up the oxygen reduction reaction. It is found that transition metals in the subsurface induce charge polarization at the surface and suppresses the surface-states. The modified surface-states of Pt surface layer critically affects the chemical bonding between oxygen and Pt surfaces.

Room-temperature solution-processed ultrathin 2D MoS2 nanosheets are integrated into organic solar cells as an efficient hole extraction layer. An enhanced power conversion efficiency of 8.11% is achieved, which is superior to that of traditional vacuum-evaporated molybdenum oxide.

A multilayer graphene/GeO2 tubular nanoarchitecture by a strain-driven method shows simultaneously a high reversible capacity of 919 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C after 100 cycles, a remarkable cycling performance of over 100% capacity retention after 700 cycles with a very high capacity of 821 mAh g−1 at 1 C, and superior rate capability.

An artificial solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) consisting of a lithium-ion conducting material enables the use of a LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 cathode with conventional carbonate electrolytes. The coulombic loss and electrolyte oxidation are largely remedied by the nanometer-scale artificial SEI. The thickness of the artificial SEI is optimized by balancing the protection and additional resistance.

Composite anodic buffer layers composed of solution-processed graphene oxide and vanadium oxide (GO/VOx) exhibit a significant enhancement in their electron-blocking properties and sol–gel-precursor blocking abilities, compared to buffer layers of only the d0 transition metal oxide. Such composites enable inverted polymer solar cells to have high open-circuit voltage and fill factor values, as well as the highest power conversion efficiency to date of 6.7%, shedding light on how stable and cost-effective whole-solution-processed polymer solar cells may be achieved.

The use of battery electrode architectures free of support components would enable gains in device energy density. The electrochemical behavior of carbon-free electrodes with different anatase TiO2 particles is investigated. The performance is found to depend on both crystal size and morphology. Electrodes with 3 × 20 nm rods showed exceptional durability and rate capability, even when compared to electrodes with carbon additives

UV irradiation processes and formulations are successfully developed for low-temperature fabrication of both mesoporous TiO2 photoanodes and platinum counter- electrodes on polymer substrates. For the first time fully plastic UV-processed dye solar cells and modules with integrated W series interconnections are demonstrated.

An atomic layer deposition (ALD) process is applied to the porous Li-rich cathode Li1.2Ni0.13Mn0.54Co0.13O2 particle for Li-ion batteries. The ALD coated Al2O3 using TMA precursor produces a conformal coating on the particles, which is contrary to the particulate morphology of the ALD-coated TiO2. The paper discusses the impacts of ALD surface-protection film on the battery performance in half- and full-cell configurations at different temperatures.

A thin conformal Li-ion permeable oxide layer is created by rapid plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) for lithium–sulfur batteries in order to prevent the polysulfide dissolution. PEALD offers a fast deposition rate combined with a low operating temperature, which avoids sulfur evaporation during deposition. The result is significantly enhanced cycle life with a capacity of up to 600 mA·h·g−1.

Controllable vertical graphene nanosheets are fabricated by reforming cheap and spreadable natural precursor butter in a simple, plasma-assisted chemical vapor process. Electrodes made by these graphene nanosheets showed excellent supercapacitor performance compared to nanosheets produced from the conventional purified hydrocarbon gases or other precursors such as honey and milk.

Electrochemically driven amorphization of nanoscale Si occurs by a two-step process. First, there is a gradual decrease in the amount of crystalline Si due to the reaction with surfaces and grain boundaries; then this is followed by a second step of a rapid drop in the crystalline Si due to the lithiation of the crystalline core.

Metallized electrospun polyacrylonitrile nanofibers are used to realize flexible transparent conductors with performances comparable to that of ITO. Transferred onto PDMS substrates, the transparent conductive nanofibrous network exhibits an unprecedented stretchability with stable electrical conductance, by virtue of the rearrangement of the fiber network rather than the tensile deformation of the individual fibers.

Highly efficient light-emitting electrochemical cells are prepared based on a green phosphorescent ionic iridium complex. By using a current-based driving method, the relation between current density and device efficiency is investigated. A strong dependence of the efficiency on the current density is found. Maximum efficacies of 28.2 cd A−1 at a luminance above 750 cd m−2 are achieved by optimizing the driving parameters.

Article first published online: 29 MAY 2013 | DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201300275

Surfactant and water system: The introduction of an aerosol OT (AOT)/water system to the I3−/I− electrolyte enables the control of the concentration of the redox couples through the hydrogen-bonding association between the AOT and the carboxy group of the dye, which consequently achieves a high power conversion efficiency of ∼11% (under 1 sun illumination) owing to the enhanced dye-regeneration efficiency and the reduced recombination rate

Batteries better than black: In contrast to conventional Si electrodes that use acetylene black as an additive, Si–reduced graphene oxide–carboxymethyl cellulose (Si–rGO–CMC) electrodes have improved coulombic efficiency and longer cycle life. Si particles are bound to the flexible rGO sheets through the soft and dynamic CMC bridges, which allows excellent reversibility of the alloying process in these electrodes.

The atomic structures of Li2MnO3 after delithiation and re-lithiation are directly observed using spherical aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. It is found that after electrochemical treatments, a new stacking sequence of LiMn2 planes appears and the regularly arrayed LiMn2 planes become disordered. LiMnO2 and some new domains are also found in the delithiated state in the first cycle.

Different photocatalytic performance–nanostructure correlations are observed on photoelectrochemical cell and direct heterogeneous photocatalysis. It is demonstrated that intimate interparticle connected nanostructures with vectorial charge conduction are favorable in photoelectrochemical cells. For direct heterogeneous photocatalysis, high reactivity facets are more desirable, which have better photoactivated semiconductor/electrolyte interface and better charge separation efficiency.

X-ray diffraction and fluorescence analysis are used to monitor in situ the three-stage co-evaporation of CuInSe2 and CuGaSe2 thin films for solar cells. Thanks to a novel experimental setup tailor made for the EDDI beamline at the BESSY II synchrotron facility, it is possible to follow and model the phase transformations and microstructural changes occurring during the co-evaporation of Cu-In-Ga-Se thin films.